Auto Water Level Help

AaronS

I am a new steam boiler owner! I have a American Standard furnace with a Uni-Match WF2-U-24 auto water feeder. Last night I noticed the water level was really low, bottom of the slight glass, so I decided to use the manual feed button to add water and figured I would deal with it later. Unfortunately, once I started the feed the auto feeder continued to cycle until the boiler was filled over the top of the sight glass and started to leak. At this point I shut off the water to the auto feeder and flushed out enough water to get it back to the middle of the sight glass, about 23” above the floor. I am trying to figure out how all the controls are supposed to work. Here is what I have observed.



-Burner turns off when water is at the very bottom of the sight glass and will turn back on with ½” of added water.

-Burner turns off anytime water is being drained .

-The control box, in the close up, appears to be a high water level burner shutoff but requires really low settings,

nicholas bonham-carter

american standard

where was the leak?

can you post a few pictures showing the piping above the boiler?

the control is a pressuretrol, and keeps the boiler between 2 set pressure limits. for instance it should be set to cut off the burner at 1.5 psi, and strt the burner up again when the pressure drops to .5 psi.

why not visit  the shop here, and get some steam heating books, so you can learn more about your system, and how to make it more efficient.--nbc

AaronS

More

The water came from the base of the boiler, I assume there is some blow valve on the water tank if the water level is too high.



Do you have any book recommendations?



Attached is a photo of my steam pipes, I am in the process of insulating so they are only partially covered.

crash2009

Water on the floor

close to the boiler is not a good sign.  You need to eliminate the possibility that the boiler has a hole in it.  or figure out where the water came from.  The blow valve is not supposed to leak, you should be able to overfill the boiler until water comes out of your radiators. 



You could look at the bottom of the boiler with a flashlight and a mirror.  Shut it off first.